Adaptive steering isn’t something that’s new. BMW has had it, almost every car with power steering has a minor version of it and the Infiniti Q50 has a user-selectable version that in sport mode knocks a full turn of the wheel off the lock-to-lock number of turns.

Adaptive steering in the most proletarian version is a system to vary the amount of assist depending on the speed of the vehicle: Low speeds get more assist, high speeds get very little or no assist at all.

The upgrade to adaptive steering also varies the ratio of steering input to steering output: In other words, it varies how much the front wheels turn for every turn of the wheel.

Most cars have a fixed ratio of about 16:1. That means it would take 16 turns of the steering wheel to make the front wheels rotate completely around.

Of course, the front wheels can’t rotate completely around because suspension and driveshafts and steering linkages get in the way, but that’s the calculation anyway.

That ratio is a pretty good compromise between being able to track comfortably at highway speeds — meaning you’re not always fighting to keep the car in line — and having enough steering input to be able to parallel park without winding the wheel around itself forever.

But it also usually means that parallel parking requires turning the wheel all the way one way and then all the way the other.

Adaptive steering can change that, so that it might only take a flick of the wrist one way and a flick the other.

Adaptive steering can also be used to improve steering input for twisty roads, making for a more-direct connection between you and the front wheels.

What is new, today, about adaptive steering, is a system that makes it all happen inside the steering wheel.

Most other systems happen inside the engine compartment, either mounted on the steering column or on the steering rack itself.

Ford’s new system uses actuators that mount right inside the steering wheel that increase or decrease the amount of steering relative to the turn of the wheel.

Ford says the system requires no change to the rest of the steering system, which on the surface suggests going forward, adaptive steering won’t be the complicated addition it had been.

When the system is mounted inside the engine bay, given how tight most engine bays are today, the components must be accounted for from the start of the design process.

Which means it can be as much as a five-year process to bring out a car with the system.

When it all happens inside the steering wheel, providing electricity to the steering wheel is all that’s required.

“This new steering technology can make any vehicle easier to maneuver and more fun to drive,” said Raj Nair, Ford group vice-president, global product development, in a statement.

I wouldn’t expect it to be an aftermarket add-on just yet, so don’t go taking your Escort over to the local Ford store hoping to transform the steering.

What it does do, however, is drastically lower the point of entry where it conceivably could be available as an option in something as inexpensive as Fiesta.

Ford expects the system to be on the market within 12 months. No word yet on which product it will first appear.